LIBERATING EDUCATION 105 ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE STRATHFIELD LUMEN 2024 VISUAL ARTS Mr N Phillipson Head of Visual Arts “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.”— Paul Klee 2024 was a productive and creatively filled year for the Visual Arts Faculty at St Patrick’s College. As a faculty we warmly welcomed and bid farewell to several staff members. To begin the academic year, the department welcomed Ms Marie Marino, who joined the College in a 12 month temporary part-time role teaching Stages 3 and 4. We said farewell to Mrs Jennie Harold, who after 18 months at the College as the Operations Coordinator and Visual Arts teacher moved on to a role closer to home. Mrs Adriana Karanfilovski took parental leave in Term 3 as she and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby girl. The exuberant Mr Ruben Fela continued to thrive and settle well into the department working positively with colleagues and students, particularly in his Years 9 and 10 elective classes. The dynamic and capable Mr Anthony Porra continued to challenge, engage and extend his students, particularly his HSC class. The Major Works Evening, Wednesday 4 September, was exceptionally well attended and showcased the works of our 27 HSC Visual Arts students. Collectively, we were extremely pleased to be notified that six students—Gianluca Bilotta, Patrick Doolin, Anthony Douaihy, Kieran Low, James Marchant, and Yun Yi—were all shortlisted for ArtExpress. ArtExpress presents a selection of outstanding bodies of work by HSC Visual Arts students in NSW. To receive a nomination indicates a student has reached the top end of the practical marking scale and is placed, for this component of the course, in the top echelons of the state; an outstanding achievement. At the beginning of the year, the department set itself the Professional Learning Goal: To work with strategic purpose in highlighting the work of students, forging a visual brand of success and support in a competing curriculum landscape; enhance the student experience through immersive and extension opportunities; and build teacher capacity in newworld technologies, artmaking procedures, and critical and historical case studies. As a professional collective, we worked together to achieve this goal, with a specific focus on the following outcomes: improving artmaking experiences through artist mentoring, adapting classroom spaces as working studios, and encouraging the art rooms to be places of interaction and work during recess and lunch. The Year 8 Enhance Day returned in 2024. This ‘Arts’ enrichment day is designed to extend students’ understanding of the learning areas and opportunities available within the creative arts domain. Students were given the opportunity to hear from and work with professional artists. Ceramicist Ebony Russell spoke about her arts practice and facilitated a clay workshop for students. Mrs Karanfilovski and Mr Fela also delivered a fantastic ‘light painting’ workshop, where students used the long exposure function of a DSLR camera to capture drawn light trails. Another outstanding learning opportunity for students was the Year 10 in-College ceramic workshop. Challenged by the notion of ‘form vs. function,’ students designed their own ceramic vessels and pre-planned their making methodology. Under the mentorship of contemporary ceramic artist Alexandra Standen and their classroom teachers, students spent a day in the studio improving their artmaking practice and working to construct their classical Greek inspired vessel forms. Ms Standen is a highly skilled ceramist, known both nationally and internationally for her large hand-made vessels. It was such a gift to have her mentoring and working with students. Ceramicist Ebony Russell Year 8 Enhance Alexandra Standen Visiting Artist Year 10 Visual Arts Kristian Mattson And Nathen Chen Year 10 Visual Arts Students Mr Fela Describing The DSLR Camera Year 8 Enhance
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